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Environment studies, what is the next step I need to take to push it?

My process for drawing environments and practices that people suggested to me from my previous perspective critique thread. http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=270308 (mainly from the Perspective Tutorial Videos I bought from CTRL+paint, as you can see.)

With the reference I've picked I first work on the silhouette of the background and build up silhouettes from there. The darker or vibrant, the more closer the object/subject is. If the environment I am drawing is linear then I tried to figure out the the horizon line and where the vanishing points lied and then sketched out the general objects, if the objects were organic.

I was reading some other things, especially concerning natural environments is to place a "personality" within your drawing, so that is what I tried to convey with the brush movement, color scheme or focus.

Thank you in advance for taking anytime to critique me and help me improve.

I suggest you slow down, and paint simple still lifes from observation. Independent from that, keep working on you perspective, and reconstruct some simple objects, buildings and, eventually, a street or cityscape.

I suggest you slow down, and paint simple still lifes from observation. Independent from that, keep working on you perspective, and reconstruct some simple objects, buildings and, eventually, a street or cityscape.

Thank you very much for your advice. I tried focusing on still lifes, while also trying to speedpaint environments. Simple perspective blocking, and silhouttes of singular objects. I think my failing in the speedpaint tryouts tell me I need to get some cheap paint and work traditionally before applying to a digital program like photoshop.

Reading older threads on here and watching youtube videos I have gathered:
An environment is just one big still life.
However, successful environments can work through impression rather than a complete rendering.

My thoughts on this, I feel frustrated by my inability to draw anything good with perspective, rendering, texture or anything. I am still progressing and trying to become slower and much more critical so I can learn than rather rushing it but it is hard. I think my desire of wanting to become a better perspective artist is my downfall since I am overlooking important things for the sake of time, speed and impatience. OTL.

Thank you in advance for critiquing me. I will update with some more pencil, paint and eraser stuff.

Hey Marlo,
I appreciate your posting many different pieces and showing a healthy amount of process. This helps other people learn too, so keep it up. I also agree with eezaque that you should slow down, but only enough to fully render a piece every once-and-awhile. Your studies in quick form building and lighting/composition will continue to help you learn only to a point and eventually you will need to practice your other skills in refinement and completion. Good job, keep working.

"It is ten per cent how you draw, and ninety per cent what you draw. "

I just got myself some oil paints, but her are some digital studies. The island rock one was an attempt on rendering it completely (not the entire piece, just what I was focusing on), the mountainish study is an attempt color and value.( I think I misused the textures heh ^.^; )

Another linear perspective box study with a rough city look.

Last is sort of an experiment on color.The waterfalls were difficult.

Anyway, Looking forward to some oils! Thank you again for any critique.

edit 1/12/14: Browsed around CA again and found a new tidbit of info that is definitely what I need to do. Blocking out an image's shadows with a simple brush. Refine is for later. My studies are weak because I am jumping straight to details which is making my image look incredibly weak.

You definitely need to do a few complete works once in a while. Pulling everything together requires a whole new set of skills and there are many weaknesses of yours you might be missing. Coherent shadows and a working composition can be quite hard to achieve for example.

The Following User Says Thank You to stephou For This Useful Post:

Its nice that you are enthusiastic but I don't think you are really paying attention to the critiques being given on here so far. You show a very slapdash approach in a lot of your paintings. When people say slow down, it means just that... Be deliberate, careful, conscientious. Paint an apple but take the time to really apply yourself to the task, to try and make it as life like as you can. This will help you out far more than 100 randomly generated paintings that you give up on after half an hour or so.

Everyone talks about speedpainting, its the latest buzzword. But its not some kind of separate discipline! People especially beginners get all hung up on the idea. Wow its so cool! What a load of rubbish! I hate using the word. All it is is a measure of time. If you can't do something decent in 10-20 hours you're not going to do something better in 30 minutes. Its simply not logical so throw it out of your vocabulary because its not helping you!

The Following User Says Thank You to Kelvin Liew For This Useful Post:

Hmm... you are very right. I am doing a slap-dash approach by what you are telling me. The longest drawing I've done is 3 hours, maybe?, barely anything chalkable compared to a 10-20 hours approach.( 3 hours doesn't seem like a lot now that I look back on it) Looking back at my art right now I see a lot of rushed paintings, which makes sense why I am not progressing the way I'd like to. Kind of embarrassing, everyone keeps telling me to slow down--I think I'm doing it, but alas, I am not!!!

I've also read a lot tutorials that speed-paintings are usually the best route for improvement too, but I do not think that is something I should be humouring right now.